UNIVERSITY OF ILLINOIS LIBRARY AT URBANA-CHAMPAIGN ACES NOTICE: Return or renew all Library Materials! The Minimum Fee for each Lost Book is $50.00. The person charging this material is responsible for its return to the library from which it was withdrawn on or before the Latest Date stamped below. Theft, mutilation, and underlining of books "* discip "- nary action and may result in dismissal from the University. To renew call Telephone Center, 333-8400 UNIVERSITY OF ILLINOIS LIBRARY AT URBANA-CHAMPAIGN L161 0-1096 JUN 1 6 2005 UNIVERSITY OF UNIVERSITY OF ILLINOIS Agricultural Experiment Station. BULLETIN NO. 97- MARKET CLASSES AND GRADES OF SWINE. BY WILLIAM DIETRICH. URBANA, NOVEMBER, 1904. SUMMARY OF BULLETIN No. 97. CLASSES. SUBCLASSES. PRIME HEAVY HOGS, 350-500 Ib r HEAVY BUTCHERS, 280-350 Ib. MEDIUM BUTCHERS, 220-280 Ib. LIGHT BUTCHERS, 180-220 Ib. HEAVY PACKING, 300-500 Ib. BUTCHER HOGS, 180-350 Ib. Page 425. GRADE. . PRIME PRIME. GOOD. PRIME. GOOD. COMMON. PLATE. 1 2 3 4,7 5,8 6,9 IO\J\J r^L.-- LIGHT LIGHT HOGS. About 25 percent of the light hogs coming to the Chicago market are of this class. This is a class of hogs ranging in weight from 125 to 150 pounds, and in age from five to six months. They bear the name of "light light/' because they are the lightest of light hogs. While the "light butchers" and "bacon hogs" are the selected kinds of their respective weight, with consequent small variation between the different 1904." MARKET CLASSES AND GRADES OF SWINE. 451 grades, the class of "light light hogs" includes all the hogs of this weight; consequently the range in the grades is wider. They are used principally for the fresh-meat trade, and the grades are as follows: Good light lights, plate 29, page 451. Common light lights, plate 30, page 451. Inferior light lights, plate 31, page 452. PLATE 29 OOOD U&HT U&HT PLATE 30. COMMON LIGHT LIGHT 452 BULLETIN No. 97. [November, Good light lights are the best hogs of this type that come to market, while the common light lights are of a poorer grade, and the inferior light lights are the poorest grade within these limits. These latter are, however, by no means the poorest grade of hogs that come to market. Plates 29, 30, and 31; pages 451, 451, 452. In the Buffalo market light hogs weighing from 130 to 180 pounds are called "Yorkers"; the lighter ones are called "light Yorkers," and the heavier ones "best Yorkers." This is only a colloquial expression, and by it are meant hogs such as are represented by "bacon hogs," "light lights," and "light mixed" hogs. They are called Yorkers because hogs of this class find ready sale on the New York market and are very often shipped there from Buffalo. Being shipped from Buffalo, they might under another nomenclature be called "shippers." "Dairies" is another colloquial term used in Buffalo, and means hogs that have been fed on slops or refuse from dairies. The flesh of these hogs is not so firm nor will they dress so well as will corn-fed hogs. PIGS. Pigs, as they are considered on the market, range in weight from 60 to 125 pounds, and in age from three and one-half to six months. This class, the same as that of light light hogs, takes in all the pigs that range within the given weights. These are used principally to supply the demand from the cheaper restaurants and lunch counters, and are 1904. MARKET CLASSES AND GRADES OF SWINE. 453 in greatest demand in winter, being hard to preserve fresh in summer and too young to cure. About 10 percent of the hogs coming to the Chicago market are of this class. They are graded as follows: Choice pigs, plate 32, page 453. Good pigs, plate 33, page 453. Common pigs, plate 34, page 454. They are choice, good, and common pigs, in proportion to their approach to the ideal of a fat hog. Here, as in the other classes, form, quality, and condition determine their grade. They are choice when these characteristics are well developed, and good and common as these qualities are less marked. Plates 32, 33, and 34; pages 453, 453, 454. 454 BULLETIN No. 97. [November, ROUGHS. In this class we find hogs of all sizes that are coarse, rough, and lack- ing in condition. If they are too inferior to be classed as packing hogs or as light mixed hogs, they go into the class of roughs. The pork from these hogs is used for the cheaper class of trade for both packing and fresh meat purposes. In market reports pigs and roughs are frequently classed together, not because they belong in the same class, but because they sell at approximately the same price. Plate 35, page 455, STAGS. Stags are hogs that at one time were boars beyond the pig stage and have been subsequently castrated. They sell with a dockage of 80 pounds. If they are of good quality and condition and do not show too much stagginess, they go in with the various grades of packing hogs. AVhen they are coarse and staggy. in appearance, they are sold in the same class with boars. The intermediary grades sell for prices ranging between these extremes, dependent upon their freedom from stagginess and their quality and condition. Plate 36, page 456. BOARS. Boars are always sold in a class by themselves and bring from two to three dollars per hundredweight less than the best hogs on the market at the same time. They always sell straight, with no dockage. There are no distinctions as to grades; they simply sell as boars. Of course, if there are marked differences as to quality and condition, the price varies a little accordingly. The pork from these animals is used to supply the cheaper class of trade, and also for making sausage. Plate 37,- page 456. 1904.] MARKET CLASSES AND GRADES OF SWINE. 455 456 BULLETIN No. 97. 1904. MARKET CLASSES AND GRADES OP SWINE. 457 MISCELLANEOUS. ROASTING PIGS. This is a class of pigs from three to six weeks old and weighing from 15 to 30 pounds. These are not generally found qucrted hi market reports, as they come to market hi such small numbers and only during holiday seasons. Pigs of this class usually are of very nearly uniform grade. They are taken direct from their dams, dressed with head and feet on, and served like spring chickens or turkeys. The price varies greatly, ranging all the way from regular live hog prices to that paid for poultry. Plate 38, page 457. FEEDERS. Feeders are hogs that are bought on the market and taken back to the country to be further fed. This is practiced only to a very small extent. First, because the price per hundredweight of the animal is not usually much enhanced by such an operation, as is the case with cattle. Many times such a hog would sell for less money per pound after being fed to a heavy weight, than the price paid for him when bought as a pig. This is due to the fluctuation in price between heavy and light hogs. Second, there is too much danger of the hogs con- tracting diseases, such as hog cholera and swine plague, by going through the yards and by being shipped in cars that may be infected. Further- more, the life of a hog being short and the feed required to put him in market condition not being very great, he is usually fitted for market in first hands. Then again, a pig that has been fed on corn would not be a profitable feeder, owing to the tendency to lay on fat at the expense of the muscle and framework of the body. 458 BULLETIN No. 97. [November, GOVERNMENTS. Before hogs are allowed to pass over the scales to be weighed out to the packer, the speculator, the shipper, or to any one else who may choose to buy them, they must first pass the scrutiny of a government inspector. Ah 1 hogs that are not considered sound in every respect are tagged by this inspector and retained for further inspection. These are called Governments. Plate 39, page 458. They are usually bought up by a local dealer and taken to one of the smaller packing houses, where they are slaughtered under the supervision of an inspector. If found to be affected so as to make their flesh unfit for human food, they are condemned, slaughtered, and tanked. The tank is a large steam-tight receptacle like a steam boiler, in which the lard is rendered under steam pressure. This high degree of heat destroys all disease germs with which the diseased carcass may have been affected. The product of the tank is converted into grease and fertilizer. This many people consider poisonous because it is made from dead and diseased animals. Such, however, is not the case. Most diseases are caused by bacteria. These render the meat from such animals unfit for human food, on account of the danger of transmitting the disease, but they are completely destroyed in the process of rendering the lard, which is then used for the manufacture of axlegrease, soap, etc. The lean meat and bones of such animals, after going through the tank, are used for the manufacture of fertilizer. This also has all disease germs with which it has been affected completely destroyed and is perfectly harmless to be used on soil, meadow, or pasture grass. It could even be used for the manufacture of tankage and allied farm animal food products with entire impunity. The packers, however, report that such foods are not manufactured from diseased animals, but from the scraps of meat from healthy animals. PUATc 39- GOVERNMENTS 1904.] MARKET CLASSES AND GRADES OF SWINE. 459 As has been shown, the name "Governments" is given to a class of hogs, irrespective of form, quality, and condition, that have been tagged by a government inspector at the scales. These inspectors are stationed only at large packing centers. They are hired by the Government, are thoroughly competent men, and do this work without fear or hesitation. The inspectors stationed at the smaller packing houses, where inspectors are furnished at all, are furnished either privately or by the city. Having less work to do, they cannot be paid such large salaries; consequently, men with poorer qualifications must be accepted, and there is more danger of diseased meat getting to the consumer through this channel than through the large packing houses where government inspectors are furnished. The Government, up to the present time, has been unable to get enough of sufficiently well qualified men to supply all packing houses with inspectors. Besides the inspector at the scales, there are in the large packing houses three more government inspectors. One is stationed where he. can feel of the submaxillary and cervical glands as the carcasses of hogs pass by him on the rail with the heads partially severed, exposing the glands. These glands furnish the best means of detecting tubercu- losis, and the carcass of any animal that has the appearance of this disease in these glands is tagged and passed on intact, with only the intestines taken out. The second inspector is stationed farther down the line at a point where he can view the carcass after it has been cut open. Any carcass affected with tuberculosis, hog cholera, swine plague, or any other disease that may have been accidentally passed by the first inspector, or any that is healthy in the above-named glands and diseased in other parts of the body, is tagged by this second inspector. These two men must necessarily work very rapidly, as the carcasses of hogs pass and must be examined by them at the rate of 800 to 1,000 an hour. The third inspector is stationed in the cooling rooms and examines critically all carcasses that have been tagged by the two former inspec- tors. As he examines only the tagged carcasses, he has time to give them a thorough examination. All carcasses that he finds so badly diseased as to render them unfit for human food are condemned and tanked. The carcasses in which the disease is found to be only local- ized and in such a manner as not to render the meat of the same unfit for use are passed. These then pass into the ordinary channels of con- sumption. Many times only parts of the carcass are condemned, while the rest is passed as fit for food. In most every town throughout the country where there is a meat market there is also a slaughter-house where hogs are killed for home consumption. In these there are no inspectors, and the dealers them- 460 BULLETIN No. 97. [November, selves are not able to diagnose the various diseases, and even if they were, the loss would be so great that they would be tempted to be blind to anything that would detract from the profits of their business. There are even small packing-houses in the smaller cities that do more than a local business; slaughtering hogs and shipping the prepared meats. Many of these have no inspectors, and all there is to prevent all animals, both diseased and healthy, finding their way into the retail channels, is the intelligence, diligence and honesty of these small packers, which it is not always safe implicitly to trust. In view of these facts, and considering that all hogs are subject to such diseases as hog cholera, swine plague, trichinae, and tuberculosis, the latter two being especially dangerous to man, it is evident that our most wholesome meats are most likely to come from the large packing- houses, where are stationed the government inspectors. PEN HOLDERS. The hogs of this class have no influence on the market; they serve their purpose, as their name indicates. The stockyards in Chicago, for instance, are owned by the Union Stockyards and Transit Co. This firm gets its revenue from the charges for yardage of stock, for weighing the stock, for feed consumed by the stock, and for terminal switching. The commission men who sell the stock as it comes to the yards, and the speculators who handle part of it, pay nothing for their privilege of doing business in the yards. They hold their respective positions by common consent, and their respective pens by keeping hogs in them. These are called pen holders. They usually are hogs that are worth the least money, being long legged, of poor form, coarse in quality, and much lacking in condition. They are kept simply for this one purpose, .viz., holding pens. Plate 40, page 461. DEAD HOGS. These are the hogs that have been killed in the cars in transit. They are used for the manufacture of grease, soap, and fertilizer. If they weigh 100 pounds or over, they sell for 75 cents per hundredweight. If they weigh less, they furnish no revenue to the producer or shipper, the cost of handling the same being held equal to their value. Plate 41 , page 462. To summarize the percentage number of hogs of the principal classes on the Chicago market annually we have the following, which is only an approximate estimate, and is subject to considerable variation from vear to vear: 1904.] MAEKET CLASSES AND GRADES OF SWINE. 461 462 BULLETIN No. 97. Butcher hogs, 25 percent of all hogs on the market. Packing hogs, 40 percent of all hogs on the market. , ( Bacon, 20 percent. Light hogs, 15 percent of all hogs on the \ T . , , . , __ 1 Light mixed, 55 percent, market / T , r , , ' I Light light, 25 percent. Pigs, 10 percent of all hogs on the market. Other classes, 10 percent of all hogs on the market. CONCLUSIONS. 1. A thorough understanding of the market classification of hogs is very essential to all concerned in the handling of swine. 2. About two-fifths of the world's hog supply is produced in the United States and about six-sevenths of these are produced in the Mis- sissippi Valley; hence this section of country has developed the fat or lard hog and has set the standard for hogs in other parts of the United States. 3. The fat or lard hog is such because corn has been his principal feed and because there has been a demand for pork from such a hog, 1904.] MARKET CLASSES AND GRADES OF SWINE. 463 and he will conform to the present prevailing type just as long as corn remains his principal feed. 4. Classes and sub-classes are divisions into which swine are sepa- rated on account of their differences in type, wgight, quality, and con- dition, and the grades distinguish the superior from the inferior animals within the classes and sub-classes. 5. The terms, "mediums and butchers," "pigs and roughs/' "selected," "shipping," "mediums and heavies," "mixed," "Yorkers," and "dairies," are either compound or colloquial terms, and their use should be discouraged. 6. Butcher hogs are the best hogs from the fat or lard hog stand- point that come to market, and should be used as a standard for com- parison. 7. From the bacon market standpoint the English bacon hog is the ideal toward which hogs are being developed. 8. To the close observer it is apparent that the gradually changing conditions brought about by the development of the United States, and the increase in the price of corn, resulting from its varied commercial uses, cause the hog to be fed a more mixed and usually a more nitrogenous ration. This will in the future affect the type of the hog of the United States, so that it will more nearly approach that of the English bacon hog. UNIVERSITY OF ILLINOIS-URBANA